EUSTIS, Fla.—The collective heart of the community is heavy today after three Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies were shot Friday night, one of them tragically killed.
LCSO Sheriff Peyton Grinnell spoke to reporters early Saturday morning, his sorrow apparent, and explained what happened around 8 p.m. Friday, while Major Glenn Hall, Major Todd English, Lt. John Herrell, Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods and 5th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Gladson stood close by.
Deputies first responded to a disturbance at a home on Brookside Drive in unincorporated Eustis.
“While they were conducting their investigation, they were alerted to a home, we believe, a couple houses down, that there was a problem there and the deputies went to that home and saw what appeared to be the back door kicked in,” Grinnell said. “They could hear a disturbance inside of that home.”
When the deputies entered the home there was “a lot of gunfire,” and one deputy was struck, Grinnell said, and a backup deputy was able to retreat outside. The first deputy was trapped inside the home and multiple deputies responded.
“They immediately formed a rescue team to go back in, to attempt to get the deputy sheriff that was still inside the home, and they were just met with a hail of gunfire,” Grinnell said.
During that gunfire, two more deputies were shot. One deputy was shot in the shoulder and is in stable condition; the second deputy was shot multiple times in the armpit, stomach area and groin. He underwent surgery and is in serious critical condition.
“It’s horrific when you have one of your own inside a home and you can’t get to him.”
Grinnell explained how the deputy was rescued from the home.
“We have equipment for that, that’s the reason we have this equipment, and we tore the home apart so we could get in there and get that deputy out of there, Grinnell said “It was a chaotic scene.”
When the SWAT team entered the home, they rescued the deputy and he was transported to AdventHealth Waterman, where he succumbed to his injuries.
They found three suspects; two were deceased and the third was transported to an area hospital for treatment. It is unknown if the suspects were killed by deputies or, if it was a murder-suicide, Grinnell said. Multiple firearms were found in the home, “everything from long guns to hand guns,” he said
Law enforcement officers from city departments all over Lake County responded to the scene, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI,) the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF,) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE.) FDLE will conduct the investigation of the incident.
